Wow, what a busy week!
Robert and I have been on the hunt for a second car as I mentioned in an earlier post. After much searching and looking at plenty of rusty vehicles, Rob found a small dealer about 10 minutes away from our place who was selling a 10 year old Honda Civic, which was really tidy, with good tires, hardly any rust, air con that still works with 2 years MVI on it (MOT equivalent)...So we bought it.
The whole process of buying this second car has left us really annoyed with our current bank RBC. We went to them for a loan which we didn't get. We have had a credit card with them for a year now. That credit card is what they call a secured credit card, it's for people with a bad credit rating, or in our case no credit rating at all as we were new to the country. With the secured card, the bank retains $1000 of your money as a deposit against the card and the limit on the card is $1000. We were told initially that we would get that money back after one year. Not so! They carry on holding on to it. So the irony is, they wouldn't give us a loan, but they offered us another credit card, all the while half the money we needed for the car was in their clutches!
Well as you can imagine, we were not best pleased, having discussed this with our neighbours, they suggested trying Scotia Bank, and made us an appointment with their branch to see how they could help us. They were great. We now have a new bank account there, which is 'charge free' for the first year as it's what they call a welcome account, for people who have been in the country less than 3 years. We also get a credit card with an unsecured limit of $5000 instead of RBC's poxy $1000 and in 3 months we can most likely pop in a set up a credit line, which is a cross between a credit card, a loan and an overdraft at a very cheap rate of 5%. Nearly every one I know has one here, once we have that we won't really need to use the credit card, but even the interest rate on the credit card is lower than RBC!!!
So a lesson learned! We took the advice of UK 2 Nova Scotia on banking and I wish we hadn't! We will now start slowly moving our money across to the new account, starting with Rob's new job wages. If you are left scratching your heads as to how we paid for the car in the end, we put half of it on an English credit card and Rob managed to scrape together a few last shackles from the UK to pay the other half.
Wednesday night was a big night at the camera club. It was the last meeting of the season and awards night. With so many talented members in the club and me being a relative newbie, I didn't expect get anywhere with it, but was thrilled to be placed in 4 of the 12 categories (Trucks and Cars, Food, In the Garden and Reflections). I was presented with little engraved tags to put under my images in a frame (not that that will ever happen!) I won a $10.00 gift card for Henry's (Canadian version of Jessops), a magazine subscription and $5.00 off our next membership to the club.
In other photo news, thanks to those who have supported my entry into the Canada Post Contest. I haven't won anything as yet, BUT I was contacted by them today and this is what they wrote:
Thanks for entering Canada Post’s “My Canada” Photo Contest.
We’re so impressed by your entry "Stonehurst Cove" that we’d like to include it in a photo book for the Royal Couple, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge! We’ll be delivering the book to them during their upcoming Canadian tour. A few days after the official delivery, we’ll also create an album on our Facebook page (facebook.com/canadapostpromo) to share the photos with fellow Canadians!
You will be given full credit for your work, which will be featured in the book alongside the photo title and your first and last name.
So now one of my images will feature on Wills and Kate's coffee table :o)))
I am updating the blog early this week as I shall be gone all day on Sunday, there is a photography field trip at to a Vintage Car show at Memory Lane plus various other locations, just hope the sun comes out. We have actually seen the sun a couple of times this week which makes a change. When it does come out it is so hot, but the temperature is up and down so much right now and ranging from 12 degrees right up to 21 degrees.
Finally, Happy Fathers Day Dad!!
Our New Old Car :o)The whole process of buying this second car has left us really annoyed with our current bank RBC. We went to them for a loan which we didn't get. We have had a credit card with them for a year now. That credit card is what they call a secured credit card, it's for people with a bad credit rating, or in our case no credit rating at all as we were new to the country. With the secured card, the bank retains $1000 of your money as a deposit against the card and the limit on the card is $1000. We were told initially that we would get that money back after one year. Not so! They carry on holding on to it. So the irony is, they wouldn't give us a loan, but they offered us another credit card, all the while half the money we needed for the car was in their clutches!
Well as you can imagine, we were not best pleased, having discussed this with our neighbours, they suggested trying Scotia Bank, and made us an appointment with their branch to see how they could help us. They were great. We now have a new bank account there, which is 'charge free' for the first year as it's what they call a welcome account, for people who have been in the country less than 3 years. We also get a credit card with an unsecured limit of $5000 instead of RBC's poxy $1000 and in 3 months we can most likely pop in a set up a credit line, which is a cross between a credit card, a loan and an overdraft at a very cheap rate of 5%. Nearly every one I know has one here, once we have that we won't really need to use the credit card, but even the interest rate on the credit card is lower than RBC!!!
So a lesson learned! We took the advice of UK 2 Nova Scotia on banking and I wish we hadn't! We will now start slowly moving our money across to the new account, starting with Rob's new job wages. If you are left scratching your heads as to how we paid for the car in the end, we put half of it on an English credit card and Rob managed to scrape together a few last shackles from the UK to pay the other half.
Wednesday night was a big night at the camera club. It was the last meeting of the season and awards night. With so many talented members in the club and me being a relative newbie, I didn't expect get anywhere with it, but was thrilled to be placed in 4 of the 12 categories (Trucks and Cars, Food, In the Garden and Reflections). I was presented with little engraved tags to put under my images in a frame (not that that will ever happen!) I won a $10.00 gift card for Henry's (Canadian version of Jessops), a magazine subscription and $5.00 off our next membership to the club.
In other photo news, thanks to those who have supported my entry into the Canada Post Contest. I haven't won anything as yet, BUT I was contacted by them today and this is what they wrote:
Thanks for entering Canada Post’s “My Canada” Photo Contest.
We’re so impressed by your entry "Stonehurst Cove" that we’d like to include it in a photo book for the Royal Couple, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge! We’ll be delivering the book to them during their upcoming Canadian tour. A few days after the official delivery, we’ll also create an album on our Facebook page (facebook.com/canadapostpromo) to share the photos with fellow Canadians!
You will be given full credit for your work, which will be featured in the book alongside the photo title and your first and last name.
So now one of my images will feature on Wills and Kate's coffee table :o)))
I am updating the blog early this week as I shall be gone all day on Sunday, there is a photography field trip at to a Vintage Car show at Memory Lane plus various other locations, just hope the sun comes out. We have actually seen the sun a couple of times this week which makes a change. When it does come out it is so hot, but the temperature is up and down so much right now and ranging from 12 degrees right up to 21 degrees.
Finally, Happy Fathers Day Dad!!
Left: 3rd place Gherkin Reflections Right: 2nd Place Two Ton
3rd place: A Bowlful of Colour
3rd place: Frosty Morning at Stourhead
A right royal image of Stonehurst
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